Historically, fabrication techniques have involved the fabrication of separate metal components and joining the components using fasteners, with an intermediate disposed gasket. This tends to require many parts and therefore is labor intensive.
Plastic engine intake manifold assemblies (such as for automotive vehicle engines) have been fabricated by near net shape manufacturing processes, such as lost core processes. While these tend to result in desirable near net shape products, the shapes of which may be complex, they typically are expensive.
In another popular process, two or more plastic intake manifold components are made, each with a planar mating surface. The components are joined at each of their respective mating surfaces by vibration welding. Such joining, however, can limit the design flexibility of components. For example, there is a potential that any warpage of respective components or other surface irregularities will result in undesirable gaps at the mating surface upon welding. Thus, it is imperative that opposing mating surfaces are planar, which, in turn, constrains design flexibility.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,093 discloses an example of the use of an adhesive to bond intake manifold components. The structure shown appears to require the presence of a particular scarf joint.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,543,404 discloses one improved approach to the manufacture of an intake manifold assembly, pursuant to which components of an engine intake manifold assembly are joined together with an adhesive bond. Various of the inventions of this patent have made possible a number of additional improvements to the manufacture of automotive intake manifold assemblies.